The Christian “Easter” celebration of death and resurrection dates back only to the Middle Ages, rather than the time of Christ; previously, Christians followed Pesach or other Middle Eastern traditions. The St Thomas Christian churches of Syria and India have continued to celebrate Pesach till modern times.

So, while purists mock claims that “Pace Egg is one of the oldest dramas in the world, dating back to Ancient Egypt and Syria”, linguistic connections give such claims modest legitimacy.

Scholars think Easter may have “pagan” origins, based on “Isthar”, the Levantine Spring goddess, or “Eostre”, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn. Christian, Hebrew and multi-theistic traditions are intertwined; and mediaeval mummers’ plays, in which tradition Pace Egg sits, draw from all.

Folklore academics claim that modern English Pace Egg and similar “hero-combat” mummer plays have their origin largely during urbanisation of the 17th to 19th centuries, with words passed on by oral tradition. Plays similar to the Heptonstall and Midgley “hero/combat” versions occur on both sides of the South Pennines and further afield.

Alternative “sword-dance”, “plough”, “multiple wooing” and “recruitment sergeant” plays are traditional across England. In times of hardship, while begging was frowned on, and in war illegal, groups of workers would perform the plays to raise cash, especially for festivities; thus the Heptonstall players’ quest “to tek our bonnie lasses to Todmorden Fair.”

Pace Egg brings together a hotchpotch of themes. The central figure is St George, seemingly representing Crusading England, fighting “Bold Slasher” (thought to be Saracen), who is slain but then reborn through the mysterious “nip-nap” administered by the quack doctor - a reprise of both Christian and pre-Christian death and resurrection traditions.

Other characters - Black Prince of Paradise, the King of Egypt and his knight Hector - all fall victim to George. But this is followed by a call to hold up one’s arms and swords, for “peace and joy - we shall have it all”.

Finally a local, timeless, drunk, Tosspot, chases young women with kisses and gives out Easter eggs for fertility and new birth. Fact aped fiction a couple of years ago when two kissed lasses produced babies in the following year!

Pace Egg faded out in the 1930s with the advent of cinema. The tradition was re-established for a dozen years in the 50s/60s by Heptonstall School.

The play was then relaunched again in 1979 by former pupil, David Burnop, at the suggestion of his mother, Muriel, the school secretary, to mark its centenary. Thirty five years later, the ever-youthful David still plays the doctor.

I joined as the King in 1986, so this is my 28th year. Village postmaster David Parish was a memorable Tosspot for many years, till he, like both Allen Johnson and Steven Bailey before him, died tragically young. He was replaced by Dean Gash, who plays the part in similar, hilarious vein. The cast has remained remarkably constant, with Ray Riches playing a triumphant George for 20 or more years till 2012 and replaced then by Stuart Hought, who had been a serenading Hector for as many years before.

Jimmy Green took over from Karl Williams as Slasher in 2002, both of them staging falls in the most dramatic ways. Neil Collins has been a juggling ringmaster since 1991. And Andy Carter, who has been a cavorting Black Prince since the 90s, is now joined by his son, Rowan, as the new Hector.

The cast has been wholly male, except for a brief period when Norah Gibbins played Slasher and a year when I was ill and Sue Riches played a regal Queen of Egypt.

Historically, Pace Egg was all-male and the Maypole dance all-female. So it is appropriate that today in Heptonstall play performances are interspersed by brilliant dances by the Hebden Bridge Hill Millies.

The Midgley version is thought to be older than Heptonstall’s, though both have changed over the years. The Midgley play has been kept alive by pupils of Calder High School, including Rowan Carter, so the cast varies from year to year.

It is performed at different spots around the Calder Valley, but in recent years has always finished up in Heptonstall prior to the old-timers’ last rendition.

Then, audiences can appreciate the two versions head to tail.

While jingoistic lines are worrying to the modern ear, one would not bow to political correctness here anymore than in Othello or the Merchant of Venice. Equating one side with good and the other with evil is more worrying though and might be rethought.

But it is a mistake to take any of it too seriously. The performances make for a right rollicking Good Friday afternoon.

The Heptonstall play will be performed in Weavers’ Square at 11.15am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 4pm on April 18, with the Midgley pupils at 3pm.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

Hebden Bridge Times provides news, events and sport features from the Halifax area. For the best up to date information relating to Halifax and the surrounding areas visit us at Hebden Bridge Times regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Hebden Bridge Times requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.